Have You Heard of the 5:2 Diet?

If you’re the type of person who can’t stand the thought of not eating cakes, then one easier way to lose weight is through intermittent fasting. It’s basically having an eating pattern that switches between fasting and eating.

There are tons of ways to do it, and one popular kind is the 5:2 Diet. It says diet but, it’s not really a diet per se since you’re not forced to being a picky eater.

All you need to do for the 5:2 diet is, as the name implies, eat normally for five days a week and do a 500= to 600-calorie diet for two days. You can choose whatever day to fast as long as they’re not on consecutive days. There’s special emphasis on the normal eating, which means you can’t binge or overeat the day after fasting.

There’s literally no other requirement, and it doesn’t even matter what you eat for those days. However, there’s limited study about the effects of the 5:2 Diet specifically, and most of the health benefits associated with it come from studies about intermittent fasting in general. These benefits include lower risk of insulin resistance, diabetes, and inflammation.

One thing you can be certain of with this diet is that it can speed up weight loss. Studies suggest this diet can help you lose weight a lot faster and is just as effective as having a daily calorie restriction diet. It’s also inexpensive and easier to maintain than most diets.

Though similar studies also reveal that some people couldn’t handle it, which just shows that it won’t work the same for everyone. Those who do more physically demanding activities might not be as comfortable with this strategy. It’s also advised for people to drink plenty of water on fasting days since a certain amount of our water intake also comes from food. You may also want to reconsider before going through it after a new study found that, despite misleading headlines, the 5:2 Diet doesn’t reduce risks of cardiovascular disease.

So what you should do? “Making smarter and healthier food choices does not necessarily need to be counted in calories,” says Harley Street nutritionist and Re-Nourish: A Simple Way to Eat Well author Rhiannon Lambert to The Independent.

“Being restricted to a certain amount of calories each day isn’t going to be helpful because not all calories are equal. We should remember that health isn’t immediately repairable and weight isn’t immediately modifiable.”

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